WINNIPEG - Korey Banks said he wouldn’t have had a problem being a backup if he wasn’t one of Winnipeg’s best defenders.

The 34-year-old, of course, feels he was one of the top defensive backs throughout Winnipeg’s training camp, and that’s why he wasn’t ready to accept a backup role. Banks asked to be released on Sunday, and the Bombers suspended him on Monday, even though they paid for his flight home to Atlanta.

Since a suspended player should have had to pay his own way home, Banks figured he had actually been released and filed a grievance through the CFLPA.

“I know the rules,” Banks said.

So he returned to Winnipeg on Friday, and Bomber officials asked to meet him at a Tim Hortons restaurant, where they released him.

“A Tim Hortons,” Banks sniffed. “What does that tell you?”

Like many veterans on the wrong side of 30, they never believe they’re done when a team thinks they are. Banks is no exception, saying he will know when he can’t play anymore.